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Public restrooms are hard to find in America
- adolph 3y agoIsn’t it odd that there hasn’t been created a better method of dealing with poop and piss? Why aren’t we all wearing waste recycling systems already?
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- linusg789 3y agohttps://ghostarchive.org/archive/H7UGS https://ghostarchive.org/archive/H7UGS
- nerdchum 3y agoPeople think its the homeless pooping on the streets of San Francisco but I was an employed software engineer making 6+ figures and pooped on the street one time since I could find a restroom.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- Zetice 3y ago[flagged]
- nerdchum 3y agoI just drank a huge amount of Starbucks.
- Zetice 3y ago[flagged]
- nerdchum 3y agoCoffee affects me strongly. What can I say. I get a cleanse every morning for 3 bucks. Cleansing your digestive tract is actually really good for you. People pay big bucks for cleanses.
- Zetice 3y ago[flagged]
- nerdchum 3y agothanks for your concern! I get a check up every year! healthy as a horse! Having regular bowel movements is actually a really healthy thing. It's only really a problem when there's no public restrooms available.
- Zetice 3y ago[flagged]
- nerdchum 3y agoIf actual an scientific white paper from PubMed with research and data does not convince you that coffee has a strong laxative effect on around 30% of people, then there's not much else to say. There's still people who believe the world is flat despite all evidence to the contrary. It's very difficult to have a discussion with someone who prefers their own opinions over science.
- Zetice 3y agoYour citation is irrelevant; being unable to control your bowels to the point of shitting in the street is not healthy, and you should seek a doctor.
- SamoyedFurFluff 3y agoI disagree with this. This could’ve been caused by taking a morning coffee and having a long commute.
- nerdchum 3y agoExactly. You can get a venti coffee at Starbucks and get a refill for 52 cents and if you're not from San Francisco, you don't realize how brutal the public toilet situation is until its too late.
- SamoyedFurFluff 3y agoUgh, that sucks. You have my sincere sympathy!
- the_af 3y ago[sharing too much mode: on] Coffee almost always makes me "move my bowels" pretty fast. I solve this by making sure I never have coffee unless a restroom is available. A corollary to this is that long flights are a nightmare to me. I mostly avoid having in-flight meals, if I can.
- nerdchum 3y agoLiterally been to hundreds of cities all over the world and have always been able to find a public restroom until San Francisco! Although I would imagine New York City might be the same, never been there.
- notagoodidea 3y agoNot sure about the corollary as long flights always have restrooms and the time to use them. But maybe you are just uncomfortable on airplane toilets which is fine.
- the_af 3y agoOh, I've used them. It's uncomfortable, plus there's usually a long line both before and after you... Not the best if you're in a hurry.
- reedf1 3y agoHave you considered seeing a psychologist? Not being able to control your effusions is the sign of a significant problem.
- Zetice 3y ago[dead]
- rmilejczz 3y agoone instance of shitting in the street is hardly a sign of a “significant problem” calm down hoss
- Zetice 3y ago[flagged]
- rmilejczz 3y ago“shit happens” as they say
- nerdchum 3y agoThanks Doctor.
- Zetice 3y agoTelling someone to see a doctor isn’t medical advice. Telling someone not to shit in the street is also not medical advice; it’s basic human decency.
- nerdchum 3y agoyour opinions in this thread have been flagged so many times I can't vouch for them anymore. you really need to take a class to improve your poor reasoning skills.
- Zetice 3y agoNone of this changes the basic fact that you need medical attention if you are shitting uncontrollably in the street.
- nerdchum 3y agoYour opinions have been voted down so many times this thread is filled with your dead comments and not a single person has vouched for you other than me. I can no longer vouch for you. Also youre flame baiting which is a clear violation of HN policy. @dang You probably need to take a class on improving your poor reasoning skills and as another poster said: seek mental health care.
- DoreenMichele 3y agoYou and OP appear to agree there is a significant problem, you just disagree where the "blame" lies. OP suggests the built environment is insufficient. You baselessly assume OP must have a serious medical issue as, apparently, you can't imagine that the built environment is really the appropriate villain to finger in this case. Before anyone jumps up to accuse me of nefarious intent and of being secretly on the side of "America's built environment could stand to be improved" I'll just openly admit that's exactly where I stand and save you a bit of furious typing.
- Zetice 3y ago[flagged]
- nerdchum 3y agoover half the world shits in the streets because of inadequate public restroom access. You're clearly not educated on this. https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-27775327.amp https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-ind...
- mitthrowaway2 3y agoWhether the GP has a medical issue or not, people with bowel-control problems still deserve to be able to travel the city. There just need to be restrooms available for them. There's no simple cure, so their doctor won't be able to solve that problem for them.
- Zetice 3y agoI didn’t make any statements about any of that, he said he shat in the street uncontrollably. That’s a medical issue.
- mitthrowaway2 3y agoPresumably "since I could find a restroom" was a typo, and they meant the reason it happened was that they [couldn't] find a restroom.
- Zetice 3y agoNothing should result in a healthy person being unable to control their bowels to the point of shitting in the streets.
- adrianmsmith 3y agoWas there a possibility of finding a cafe or Macdonalds and just buying a coffee or something so you could use their restrooms? (as you said you were making 6+ figures) I mean I imagine that would be preferable to pooping on the street. But I don't know San Francisco, was there a reason why that wasn't possible e.g. no cafes open or something?
- nerdchum 3y agoYeah the lines in those places are incredibly long just to get to the counter at least in the market street area where I was. I desperately tried.
- cvccvroomvroom 3y agoStarbucks the world over. If they might give you any trouble, stare vaguely at the menu on the way in. One can always change their mind to not order something on the way out.
- nerdchum 3y agoStarbucks has restroom codes in large cities with homeless populations. They won't give out unless you buy something. One of the Boulder Colorado Starbucks has a biohazard needle disposal box. Either that's for people with diabetes or there a high population of IV drug users.
- cvccvroomvroom 3y agoShit. Pun intended. Try finding a public restroom in LA. Almost every business there sports a prominent sign proudly proclaiming "no public restroom."
- nerdchum 3y agoLos Angeles was rough for public restrooms I remember when I was there! I do remember if you were on the west side the Santa Monica boardwalk and the beaches all having public restrooms which was a lifesaver numerous times for me! But that was around 2015ish not sure how it is now.
- hackerfooze 3y ago[flagged]
- nerdchum 3y ago@dang Id bet probably the same IP addy as the other troll on this thread
- google234123 3y ago[flagged]
- hackerfooze 3y agoNot every joke is trolling but sure do your thing if it makes you feel good
- Overtonwindow 3y agoEurope solved this problem ages ago with pay toilets and regular police patrol. Some even clean themselves which has an added benefit of dissuading long term residents. The problem has been solved but city's avoid this because NIMBY's will say it incentives drugs, sex, homelessness, etc. Citizens do not trust that the government will maintain and police them properly, and I think the homeless and sanitary situation in San Francisco is a perfect example.
- jaclaz 3y agoDefine Europe, please.
- tekla 3y agoThe problem is that some people do not want pay toilets. They want free public toilets and would call Europe backward/racist/whatever for making people pay for toilets.
- Zetice 3y agoBecause it is backwards, state governments ought to supply and maintain enough bathrooms that the streets remain sanitary. Sanitation is one of the main things we need a government for; failure here is unacceptable.
- wkat4242 3y agoThe only people who pee on the streets are drunks and they're not going to a public toilet anyway.
- thrusong 3y agoShameless plug: I developed a site to help with this in my city Winnipeg called Winnipee. It went viral last summer and had a flurry of activity with community contributions (locations, updates). Winter came, traffic levelled off, and it didn't spike again this summer (though it has remained stable). I tried to track whether it was OK to use the washroom without a purchase, wheelchair accessibility, size. When I worked at McDonald's, an executive told me they wanted their customers to know there was always a bathroom they could use anywhere in the world even if they weren't making a purchase this visit. AFAIK, Starbucks had a similar policy for a long time. It was interesting to see how some locations featured immediately locked down their washrooms. I had a Tim Hortons franchise owner email me and freak out, so we marked her location as "purchase required." It's been pretty brutal here with the meth crisis, though, so I also get it. At the end of the day, I would love for our governments to provide taxpayer funded facilities around the city and even on several of our major highways. We used to have a lot here but they closed almost all of them. You can check it out: https://www.winnipee.com https://www.winnipee.com
- lazyasciiart 3y agoMcDonalds in the US 1000% does not have bathrooms available to non-customers. Was that a long time ago, or is that actually the policy in Canada today?
- bonniemuffin 3y agoYeah I've been in many urban US McDonalds where the bathrooms are locked and you need to get a code from the cashier to get into them.
- ghaff 3y agoI can't speak to in US cities (where indeed restaurants tend to police non-customer restroom use more regularly) but I've never had an issue with using a McDonald's restroom when I've been driving someplace in the US.
- notacoward 3y ago
- ftyers 3y agohttps://archive.ph/FYK9P https://archive.ph/FYK9P
- explaininjs 3y agoThey’re easy enough to find if you actually look, the problem is they’re always locked. It’s as if the city thinks people only poop from 9am to 8pm.
- kjkjadksj 3y agoA local park has the bathrooms in the rec center that has separate hours from the rest of the park. So by 5pm when everyone gets off work to play pickup basketball on the courts the only place to piss is this discrete bush that absolutely reeks as a result.
- h2odragon 3y agoIt wasn't long ago that the enlightened people writing news stories were informing us that public toilets encouraged homelessness and crime. Business that allowed the public to use their toilets were "gently encouraged" not to do so anymore. Perhaps we could go back and see who wanted to make public toilets unavailable, and make sure they're not still influencing public policy?
- jefftk 3y ago> It wasn't long ago that the enlightened people writing news stories were informing us that public toilets encouraged homelessness and crime. Link?
- switch007 3y agoIn the UK we mostly get that excuse from the councils/government because they want to cut costs, and I think people just parrot that excuse. Nobody seems to take 2 seconds to even ask how much vandalism existed only because there were no attendants (because they were fired) and therefore there was no surveillance. All the good public toilets I’ve seen have constant cleaning during the day with a strong staff presence. Funny that!
- dreamcompiler 3y ago> encouraged homelessness As if the only thing stopping me from trying homelessness as a lifestyle is the lack of public restrooms. "No restrooms? Damn! Guess I'll have to sleep at home then."
- novelwere 3y agoA show called 'How to With John Wilson' did an episode on exactly this topic recently, and as a non-American it was truly bizarre to see what the situation is like in New York. Not sure how embellished it was, but I was shocked.
- plants 3y agoAs someone who lives in New York and has seen the episode you’re referring to, it is not embellished at all. New York might be the hardest city to find a public restroom that I have ever been in. Sometimes buying something isn’t even sufficient grounds for using a bathroom - a business might only have an “Employees Only” bathroom in the back.
- storf45 3y agoMaybe one reason? https://abc7news.com/sf-expensive-bathroom-noe-valley-million-dollar-restroom-public-restrooms/12347868/ https://abc7news.com/sf-expensive-bathroom-noe-valley-millio...
- aeternum 3y agoPublic restrooms are hard to find in America but even harder in most other countries. Yes this is a problem we should solve but it's kind of ridiculous to imply it's an issue only in America. In the vast majority of countries on earth, you must either pay or purchase something to use the restroom.
- dcminter 3y ago"Spend a penny" is a common euphemism in the UK for using a toilet precisely because that used to be a typical fee on a public one; well before my day though (and I'm middle-aged). Free public ones do exist but they're not common (and the ones with a charge are a lot more than a penny).
- floodedburner 3y agoThe outright paying to pee blew my mind. Especially when you don't know that the UK has different money than the EU.
- okeuro49 3y agoI found paying to use the convenience to be much more common in Germany than in the UK. It was especially annoying at railway stations and shopping centres, both places which usually have free conveniences in the UK.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- throwawaymaths 3y agoCame here to post this. If you think the US is bad, try Paris.
- haunter 3y ago>try Paris Literally the worst example. There are +400 automated self-cleaning toilets (accessible to people with disabilities) https://capgeo.maps.arcgis.com/apps/Media/index.html?appid=5cfe04ec1774425393fbd8a5dbd47ce0 https://capgeo.maps.arcgis.com/apps/Media/index.html?appid=5... https://www.paris.fr/pages/les-sanisettes-2396 https://www.paris.fr/pages/les-sanisettes-2396
- sharkweek 3y agoIt won’t be for everyone but there’s a show on HBO called “How To With John Wilson” where he picks a theme for the week and deep dives down multiple threads around the chosen topic. A few weeks ago he did one called “How to find a public restroom” and it was shocking to me how unavailable such a necessity is in even major cities with high population density. I get that in general public restrooms end up in disarray but I also think that represents more that we just aren’t willing to fund the required maintenance to keep them in better shape. Side note: the funniest part from the episode was when he tricked one of the self cleaning bathrooms in New York to run a cleaning cycle while he was inside filming, was hilarious.
- mike503 3y agoWas coming in here to mention John Wilson. Such a slow-paced yet interesting show. This season has really caught my attention better.
- ghaff 3y ago>in even major cities with high population density I'd say that was typically where the issue is. I wouldn't expect to find a bathroom in the middle of random forest of course but pretty much anywhere in suburbia/exurbia has grocery stores, Walmarts, McDonalds, gas stations, with restrooms you can use. Worst case, make a small purchase.
- jncfhnb 3y agoI feel like restrooms are much easier to find in America than anywhere else. Restaurants and hotels usually offer them for free. It’s weird to have to pay for them in Europe
- lolinder 3y agoThis is very much a regional thing. In most of the US, my experience has been that every gas station and every restaurant has a public restroom that's unlocked at all times. They're sometimes nasty, but always available, and even the ones that are nominally for customers only aren't regulated at all. There are some places I've been that keep the restroom locked, but where I've been that's a sign that you're in a particularly sketchy neighborhood, not a regular thing. The first time I had a major problem finding a restroom at all was driving through Las Vegas a few years ago. I've only become aware that there are other places like that through articles like this on HN.
- wincy 3y agoRight, I guess maybe high crime areas have this problem? I drove from Kansas to South Florida last year and there were public restrooms literally everywhere we stopped.
- marcusverus 3y agoI’m pretty sure that homeless folks are the main reason some areas (generally urban) have few public restrooms. If someone decides they’d rather hang out or sleep in your restroom than on the street, the headache associated with offering a public restroom rises dramatically.
- coffeebeqn 3y agoSleeping there is one thing. Shooting up and leaving the needles there and painting the walls with feces is when you really start to wonder
- monocularvision 3y ago100% agree. In the Southwest, I would say 95% of the places I visit have plenty of public restrooms if you count businesses that have unlocked bathrooms. Fast food, coffee shops, grocery stores, gas stations, restaurants… nearly every public business. When my wife and I visited Scotland, we were flabbergasted at how difficult it could be to find a restroom when we were driving the countryside. Even when we would find signs of civilization, it was hard to find open businesses with restrooms.
- rmilejczz 3y agoThis is really only a problem in densely urban areas and even then not across all of them. To say public restrooms are hard to find in America is I think a mischaracterization. It would be more fair to say public restrooms are hard to find in American cities, but then Id wager all urban areas around the globe have struggled with this problem in one way or another. Anecdotally, in my hometown in Florida I’ve never had an issue finding a bathroom, not even in larger cities like Orlando and Tampa. But my experience finding bathrooms in Seattle, Washington was quite horrendous.
- throwaway22032 3y agoIs this a homeless thing or something? When travelling in the US I've just done the same thing I do anywhere. Enter a fast food place, coffee shop etc and ask to use the loo. Job done. I very rarely use truly public toilets in the UK either.
- cvccvroomvroom 3y agoThe author probably hasn't been to London or continental Europe. Good luck finding a trash receptacle in Victoria station. (Yes, the historical reasons.) Meanwhile, the US has millions of potential shrapnel trash cans everywhere. After some psycho terrorists goes after them, then it would change. A hoop with a clear bag is far safer for everyone.
- throwawaywu 3y agoHow about we put the few human-animals back in their cages, so the rest of us can live in a civilization that doesn't need to have clear bags full of trash on display.
- hedora 3y agoCalifornia effectively outlawed mental health care for paranoid schizophrenics back in the 1980’s. (You can’t even get future-you committed in the event of a psychotic break)
- okeuro49 3y agoI don't think the author is referring literally to people with mental illnesses. They're referring to the IRA. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_terrorist_incidents_in_Great_Britain https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_terrorist_incidents_...
- WirelessGigabit 3y agoPublic, no, but in general every Walmart / Starbucks / ... (except Subway) have a restroom available. Try finding a place in Belgium... if you find one, you have to pay, even if you area already a paying customer (e.g. Kinepolis, a large theater chain) or when you're in a park there's a restroom with a friggin' card reader to charge you half a Euro to take a piss. I found a tree close-by. And grocery chains aren't even legally required to have a restroom available to customers.
- beardedwizard 3y agoSitting in Amsterdam thinking the same thing. America is practically covered in accessible restrooms in comparison.
- archagon 3y agoHaving just gone through Belgium and the Netherlands, it’s a huge relief to know that public restrooms are definitely around if you’re willing to part with some change.
- nness 3y agoProbably most of EU, too. And the extra coins it takes means it is at least moderately clean. But just in case, always good to carry a few Euro coins around for the attendants. The card readers are all over the UK's largest parks, too. (A nasty issue I encountered in Iceland was that my debit card did not support Icelandic vendors, and as a result, could not be used to purchase anything which the strip reader. I jumped many turnstiles, sorry Iceland...)
- gsa 3y agoDefinitely not true in most of the Netherlands. Once you leave the touristy city centres you are down to very limited or no options. It's even worse for women because most urinals in the city centre of Amsterdam are for men only.
- namibj 3y agoThankfully there are "adapters". Essentially just suitably shaped funnels, and thankfully there are materials that shed the droplets so one won't need to clean much before stowing.
- sneed_chucker 3y agoThe restroom situation in the US is better than in any other country I've visited.
- spiderice 3y agoAgreed. I’ve never once not been able to easily find a restroom in the US. Europe is much worse, where you often have to buy toilet paper or something silly to keep people from using the restroom.
- Lio 3y agoWhat? I've never seen that in "Europe" in any country I've visited. Which country are you talking about where you have to buy toilet paper? In the UK I can think of a couple pay toilets at some of the big London train stations but other than that I can't remember seeing one. Free toilets are everywhere.
- dmatech 3y agoI've personally never had trouble going to a restaurant or other place with restrooms for customers, but I'm sure things are very different in places known for people who are homeless, drug-addicted, mentally ill, or criminals. If people use few consumables and keep the restroom clean, it's probably more likely to remain open to the public. But I'd imagine the staff doesn't want to clean up a biohazard or deal with dirty needles.
- hedora 3y agoFor a while, the highway-adjacent gas station and restaurant bathrooms were shut down in California because of covid. I suspect that many ditches got “irrigated” that year.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- tough 3y agoIn france you've public urinals by the beautiful siene lmao
- bombcar 3y agoUntil recently the Siene was the beautiful urinal.
- Madmallard 3y agoHow exactly is it legal to charge people to use bathrooms when it’s not something you can control for long? Seems like inhumane logic.
- josephcsible 3y agoThe same way it's legal for restaurants to charge you for food, even though you can die of starvation.
- Madmallard 3y agoYeah you can last weeks without food You can't last hours without pissing
- angelgonzales 3y agoIf I own a business with a bathroom it costs me every time someone uses the bathroom. Bathroom use is never free, someone is paying for maintenance and consumables.
- Madmallard 3y agoOkay it'll cost a lot more if someone pisses on your floor or the outside wall which will happen after a certain amount of severe poverty strikes. Just look at India where people shit in the street.
- tough 3y agoI was a bit shocked when in some Canada's Horton's there was a disposable needle trash for the junkies, so I get why WiFi might be free for all but restrooms not so much
- bombcar 3y agoThat’s pretty common everywhere in the USA now, even places where it’s clear the box has never ever been used.
- callalex 3y agoThose boxes are also for people with diabetes, especially at eating establishments.
- speakfreely 3y agoThe fact that people with diabetes make up any notable percentage of Tim Horton's customers is scary.
- morkalork 3y agoPretty much the only times I'll go into a Tim Hortons is when taking a break on a long drive. There's a lot of highway out there where Timmy Ho's will be your only option, especially at night, so it's not surprising to see the drop boxes. Proper rest stops have them too.
- standardUser 3y agoI'll never understand why more cities haven't invested in the Portland Loo or similar concepts for public bathrooms... https://portlandloo.com/ https://portlandloo.com/
- wyre 3y agoAfaik it’s cuz they cost like $300k
- mycodebreaks 3y agoNot a big amount though for city governments. They do tend to overspend anyways on building such facilities. https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2022-10-20/san-francisco-will-spend-2-years-and-1-7-million-to-build-a-bathroom-can-you-hold-it https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2022-10-20/san-fran...
- standardUser 3y agoIt's literally that, a FAR more expensive permanent structure, or shit and piss on the streets. End of list. If you've ever lived in a Western US city I think you'd be really, really inclined towards option #1.
- ARandomerDude 3y agoI don’t understand this. I’ve lived in America my entire life (I’m roughly 40) and literally never been unable to find a public restroom. I’m sure there are certain cities where it’s harder (maybe NYC, etc.) but “Public restrooms are hard to find in America” is stretching the truth pretty far.
- marcusverus 3y agoYeah, I’ve never encountered this issue outside of an urban area.
- bombcar 3y agoYou’ve hit the core. Whoever wrote this is clearly an urbanite through and through.
- kjkjadksj 3y agoEven in cities it just depends on where you ask. A little hole in the wall pizza joint where the bathroom involves tredging through the code violations in the kitchen? Yeah nah they aren’t letting you in there unless you have a six year old with you who is threatening to pee right then and there. Your standard urban mcdonalds or other new construction building will have full bathrooms by code on the other hand. And if there is some code or whatever, just ask. They say you need to make a purchase to legally exclude homeless people but if you don’t appear homeless they just give you the code without having to bother with that in my experience. Not to mention every single bar you see in a city will have a bathroom and zero police that for patrons.
- bachmeier 3y agoYep. People from large coastal cities see nothing wrong with openly mocking Kansas when they're talking to me. I ask them about the public restroom situation where they live, and I tell them they're living in a primitive area if they don't even have easy access to public restrooms. For some reason they think I'm joking. They're just so used to putting up with that and other things that make life miserable that they don't know what life is like in the more advanced parts of the country.
- goosethe 3y agoLol another plug. People with paruresis have trouble finding places to pee in private. Enter paruapp.com. it's mostly a personal project
- 1-6 3y agoSome public restrooms in other countries are well kept without frequent maintenance. Most restrooms in America are gross and it'll take more than a couple generations to fix this. This will be an unpopular opinion but I think parents should teach their children how to go #1 or #2 properly. For example, water tension will make pee drizzle splash everywhere. Pee on the left or right side of the porcelain. Good habits begin at home and most are being taught in daycare by teachers who would rather not stare at kids while they go.
- kjkjadksj 3y agoAll you have to do is learn to lift the seat to pee and not hover over the toilet while having the worst poop of your life. Those two points would go a long way as far as cleanliness goes.
- swozey 3y agoI got kicked out of the house by my dad when I was 16. He let me keep my car thankfully. I lived in Florida and I would park at the beaches that had public bathrooms + showers just to get by.. Weird time of my life. No pub bathrooms anywhere else..
- jimt1234 3y agoI'm a dude in his 50s now (that still feels weird to say), and I have to pee all the damn time. Going out in public always involves studying the restroom situation ahead of time. Even so, I've pee'ed in countless alleys, side-roads, and parking lots; I'm always discreet as possible, but I still don't like to do it. New York City is the absolute worst. Disgusting doesn't bother me, but why are the damn subway restrooms always closed?!
- Arainach 3y agoVandalism and drugs. It doesn't have to be everyone - just enough people - but if you had to go clean up blood and feces smeared over everything once a week, would you stay in that job?
- jdeibele 3y agoI had a similar problem at probably a similar age. Turned out that it was an enlarged prostate. Had surgery and things are much better now. The urologist said he typically saw it with men 10 years older. One bad side effect was that urine was being held in my kidneys, damaging them. So I'd urge you to get it checked out sooner rather than later.
- chrisco255 3y agoYou know why they're always closed.
- constantly 3y agoThis is not normal, respectfully. Something is up and you should go get checked out by a doctor sooner rather than later.
- keymasta 3y agoThis is a symptom of hyperglycemia or ketalacidosis. This happened to me when I was a kid, as will typically happen to undiagnosed diabetics. Have you thought of testing your blood sugar (faster) or A1C (tests average over longer period)? I don't speak Chinese but I heard of this, 糖尿病 糖 (táng) - sugar 尿 (niào) - urine 病 (bìng) - disease Please get yourself checked (for diabetes)
- ugh123 3y ago10 year old boy arrested in Mississippi for urinating in public after he couldn't find a public restroom in August https://www.cnn.com/2023/09/08/us/mississippi-boy-arrested-urinating-outdoors/index.html https://www.cnn.com/2023/09/08/us/mississippi-boy-arrested-u...
- digitcatphd 3y agoThe real problem is homelessness this is just another symptom
- p3rls 3y agoSuckers. I do NFPA25 fire protection inspections throughout NYC and let them know they will be getting a visit from the fire department if they do not let me use their bathroom. I have an entire map of private luxury bathrooms in NYC I can use now.
- seanhandley 3y agoI wonder if this is the death of public spaces. If you want community you need people to be able to leave their homes for extended periods and join each other in public. It should be stable stakes for any civilised democracy to have public conveniences IMHO
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- LAC-Tech 3y agoThere's a touristy little town about half an hours drive from me (NZ not America) that has a few cafes and what not. We used to go there multiple times a year, but recently they cut their number of public toilets down to about a third. Now I just don't go. I don't want to queue up to take a piss with a bunch of tourists.
- Animats 3y agoSan Francisco has tried. The first modern try was the JCDecaux self-cleaning street toilets. (JCDecaux is really an ad company. The street toilets are just a way to get ads on public property.) The first problem was that that the US required them to be wheelchair-accessable. So they were 3x as big and several times more expensive than the smaller units in Paris.[1] They are noted for working fine in tourist areas, and badly in homeless areas. Making them big enough for wheelchair accessibility makes them big enough for drug deals, too. They're also far too expensive. The cleaning machinery is standard industrial automation equipment from Telemechanique. I've seen one opened for servicing. If you built a washing machine that way, it would cost $20,000. It requires power, water, and a phone line. There's the Portland Loo.[2] This is designed for maximum homeless proofing. Graffiti-resistant. Gratings at top and bottom instead of solid walls, for reduced privacy. It's not self-cleaning, but can be hosed down or pressure-washed. Only needs a water line; power requirements are low enough to be supplied by a solar panel. “It’s not supposed to be a comfortable place” - Portland Loo sales manager. Seems to work, but $500,000 installed is a bit much, even with all that heavy stainless steel. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanisette https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanisette [2] https://portlandloo.com/ https://portlandloo.com/
- lolinder 3y agoMost of the US gets by just fine with gas stations and restaurants providing them to the general public with no questions asked. Maybe instead of spending huge amounts of taxpayer funds treating the symptom, San Francisco should ask itself why local businesses find it impossible to keep their restrooms open?
- grumple 3y agoThe answer is pretty simple: because when you let non-customers use the toilets, you're letting homeless, mentally ill, drug addicts, or just shitty people use the toilets at a far higher rate. They do insane things like smear shit and blood on the walls and leave used needles lying around, or they OD in the toilet, so it ends up becoming a real pain for the businesses to keep them open and clean for their actual customers. I don't know if Europe has the same issue with toilets, but I do remember having to pay to use public toilets there (in Paris, for example).
- wigiv 3y agoMy company designed and built the first few prototypes for a startup, Throne Labs, who deploy prefab, off-grid, (semi-)publicly-accessible (you have to have their app) bathrooms. Seems like they solved some core problems: finding suitable sites and partners, using semi-permanent modules that don't require [quite as] complicated/slow/expensive permitting and utility tie-ins, and some clever ways to get them re-stocked and cleaned regularly using gig labor (I always understood this to be the biggest challenge for offering public bathroom - labor cost of cleaning and resupply.) They moved on to a higher-volume producer so I've been out of touch on their progress, but I thought it was a interesting solution in the face of what I learned to be outrageous expenditure - $300k, $500k(!) - on municipal bathrooms that quickly go defunct or get destroyed, and a lack of public restroom access during the pandemic. During the project I learned a lot about how rideshare and package delivery companies just assume stops with restrooms are available on the routes (I'd love to hear what the actual company training/guidance says! It's easy to find stories about Amazon drivers peeing in bottles etc...) I also gained a lot of empathy for people who have more frequent and urgent bathroom needs than my own - having trust in availability of facilities can make a world of difference!
- s5300 3y ago[dead]
- WalterBright 3y agoThis isn't rocket science. Just rent a line of portapotties. The portapottie company will maintain them. Increase or decrease the number as required. Move them around. An order of magnitude cheaper than any other option.
- vuln 3y agoIt’s things like this that prevent more public restrooms. https://ibb.co/CzpmTR6 https://ibb.co/CzpmTR6
- bandyaboot 3y agoSeems like it would be possible to come up with partnerships between local businesses and governments. A business could be paid a certain amount to make their bathroom publicly accessible. As I’m writing this it’s sounding familiar, so maybe this is already a thing in some places? Could maybe even have the local government send out crews to do the cleaning.
- JSavageOne 3y agoPlenty of public bathrooms in Japan and Korea. The U.S can't have many nice things because it has an epidemic of homeless people, many of whom are mentally ill and/or addicted to drugs, but can't get treatment.
- pirate787 3y agoIt is a breakdown in US culture and law enforcement, not the lack of treatment options.
- jupp0r 3y agoRestrooms in the US are super easy to find, compared to Germany where I grew up. It's not only public restrooms (at least here on the west coast), but it's also completely acceptable to walk into a restaurant or store and just ask if you can use theirs. Several visiting relatives and friends from Europe were completely amazed by this. Contrast that to the fact that lots of public restrooms in Europe cost a small fee - with cash in the right small value coins that you of course don't have on you when you need to go urgently.
- JeremyNT 3y agoThe thing that's a little odd to me is that in the US it swings wildly depending on region, from "we don't really care if you're a customer" (suburban retail or gas station) to "there is literally no restroom here for the general public even with purchase" (in some big cities). And yet, here the "pay a small fee for the privilege" model seems to be completely absent. That model is also used in parts of Latin America, and it seems like it could be a useful middle ground between these US extremes.
- jupp0r 3y agoYeah, my experience with this was mostly very positive in suburban and rural areas. Even gas stations in LA for example will often not have restrooms at all. Makes it hard to drive through with little kids who don't have great potty break planning skills yet.
- pjscott 3y agoIn a lot of states it’s illegal to charge money for the use of a restroom due to lobbying by the Committee to End Pay Toilets in America in the 1970s. (Of course, the unintended but entirely predictable consequence is that in a lot of places it became very hard to find a restroom of any sort, for the reasons discussed in this thread.)
- paint 3y ago>but it's also completely acceptable to walk into a restaurant or store and just ask if you can use theirs. ...same as in Germany
- wfhBrian 3y agoJust got back from Europe and this was my biggest complaint about the places we visited. Living in Florida, I never have a problem finding restrooms. Not sure what kind of restroom oasis the author is from, but, at least here in Florida, restrooms are not hard to find.
- SirMaster 3y agoThis must be regional. There are public restrooms basically everywhere by me in WI. Every gas station, every restaurant, fast food etc, every store in general has a public and unlocked restroom in my experience. There are public restrooms at most parks too.
- black_13 3y ago[dead]
- paul7986 3y agoIn cities yes because of vagrants yet in the suburbs and rural areas ... public bathrooms are easy to find everywhere. I think Ive been to some places of businesses in cities that gave me the keycode to the bathroom once you buy something.
- electriclove 3y agoExcept at the Asian shopping plazas in the US suburbs. They make the restroom situation quite difficult.
- hartator 3y agoI am just back from Naples. Even in restaurants, restrooms are not a given. And for sure no toilet seat, toilet paper, or paper towels. Never had this issue in the US.
- shamsartem 3y agoThere is a Seinfeld joke here somewhere
- morkalork 3y agoApparently in 70s there was also a bit of a moral panic over "illicit sexual encounters" happening in public washrooms as well that might have had something to do with them being closed.
- NelsonMinar 3y agoIn the 50s, too, and before. But it's just one of many excuses. Here in the Bay Area our public transit system closed all restrooms "temporarily for security reasons" after 9/11. That was 22 years ago. They're finally reopening a few. One every year.
- aantix 3y agoIs this a big city, east coast, west coast problem? I feel like in the Midwest most businesses treat this as a loss leader and want you to come in and use their bathrooms.
- AussieWog93 3y agoReading through this thread about open drug markets, cars being smashed into and homeless people smearing shit on the walls, I feel extremely grateful to live in Australia. Even in the "bad areas" of major cities, you don't get shit like this. Worst I've seen regularly are junkies scamming on Facebook marketplace, or minor shoplifting.
- lolinder 3y agoThere are a few cities that have explicitly declared themselves sanctuaries for this kind of lawlessness and the results are unsurprising. Most of the country is nothing like this.
- vladf 3y agoWhat are some non-sanctuary cities which also have year round temperate, but not too hot or humid, weather?
- plasma_beam 3y agoWe will take our junkies to your killer snakes, insects, arachnids any day, thanks.
- Aldipower 3y agoHow about wearing a diaper? Problem solved. Just kidding. What's the problem with providing public urinals? I don't get it. Here is an simple example from Hamburg. https://www.heringinternational.com/fileadmin/images/content/de/sanitaer/2020/st%C3%A4dte_und_kommunen/Urinal/Hamburg__Hauptbahnhof__Urinalstand_960x480.jpg https://www.heringinternational.com/fileadmin/images/content... You'll find something similar everywhere in Europe. I had been in SF once. This was the smelliest city expierence I ever had yet.
- iteria 3y agoWomen and children never need to pee apparently. And apparently pooping is just out and out forbidden to all. Urinals are not anywhere near a replacement for public restrooms and really only fill the gap of trying to discourage public urination probably around bars.
- Aldipower 3y agoUrinals are not a replacement for public restrooms, but urinals are a very good addition to reduce stink. Not sure what your absolutism should tell me. Also urinals probably reduce the queue at "starbucks". If you need to poop it's your turn quicker.
- supportengineer 3y agoSomebody should make a subscription membership that allows you access to any bathroom you want.
- daveoc64 3y agoCrappr
- supportengineer 3y agoIt’s like the Clear program at the airport, but for public restrooms.
- Slava_Propanei 3y ago[dead]
- pietervdvn 3y agoFor those who want to help out with adding all public toilets to OpenStreetMap: I made a website to make this easy: https://mapcomplete.org/toilets https://mapcomplete.org/toilets You can see all toilets without an account and add a missing toilet or update information with a free/libre OpenStreetMap-account. Adding information also means it'll get picked up eventually by many of the navigation apps out there (such as Maps.me, Organic Maps, OsmAnd, nearly all of the cycle+pedestrian route planners, ...). And there are many other thematic maps - a template system makes them easy to setup: https://mapcomplete.org/ https://mapcomplete.org/
- anandijain 3y agoIn case you want a table format that shows the nearest ones in a list, I built https://free2pee.github.io/free2pee/ https://free2pee.github.io/free2pee/ on top of OSM
- anandijain 3y agoI built something too, uses OpenStreetMap and has a catalog of ~400,000 bathrooms. https://free2pee.github.io/free2pee/ https://free2pee.github.io/free2pee/
- xputer 3y agoPublic bathrooms are actually one of the few things that US cities are undeniably better at than European cities. You almost always have to pay in Europe and even paid ones can be hard to come by.
- wyclif 3y agoIf anyone thinks public restrooms are hard to find in the US, try living in a developing world country like the Philippines. Public urination is so common here; you see it and smell it everywhere.
- iancmceachern 3y agoThis is a huge problem in San Francisco. It's solvable too, but for whatever reason famously the City's leadership isn't really trying to make things better. We live right by Oracle Park where the giants play. On game days there is a flood of fans that piss all over our block. They pee all over our building, sidewalks, everywhere. There is vomit all over too. So much so the buildings here have to pay people to clean it up every morning. While all this is happening...there is a public restroom in the area that was clearly built for this purpose. It's never open, it's been locked the entire time we've lived in the neighborhood. I've been working on an idea to just start a non profit that distributes those 5 gallon buckets with those cheap toilet seat lids you can get for them. Then pay people to pick them up and drop them off periodically. Anything is better than letting people continue to defecate in our streets. I'm not even talking about the homeless population here, just average people, baseball fans. I'm also not trying to dog on baseball or sports fans in general, I'm one. I'm just saying we should try to figure out a better way.
- tw04 3y agoI feel comfortable calling myself a world traveler, and with that in mind I have to say: no, they really aren't. Outside of VERY small town america, there is a bathroom at every gas station. Every big box store. Every fast food restaurant. Try going to most of Europe, or Asia. Finding a bathroom is like a needle in a haystack in comparison, and often times when you do find one, you need money to pay to use it. I will say they are generally cleaner, and more "private" than most US bathrooms (at least in western Europe), but if you think it's tough to find one in the US - you probably don't want to travel abroad.
- matttproud 3y agoYou can tell a lot about a society by how it treats its toilets. Both about the maintainer/owner of the toilet as well as the users. In the U.S., a toilet might as well be an insect that is about to be smashed underneath a shoe.
- deafpolygon 3y agoThey may be hard to find, but in the Netherlands - you can't find them. There are a few "paid" toilets (if you have exact change) in the cities (Rotterdam, Amsterdam) and maybe other places. Needless to say, if you go out - just plan on holding it in until you get home.
- subjectsigma 3y agoI’m American but I’m typing this comment out at a campsite in Iceland. I noticed they pointed out how many public bathrooms Iceland has. This seems misleading to me. From my understanding, in Iceland it is literally illegal to just pull off the side of the road and pee if you need, since nearly all areas of the country have laws to protect the nature. (For example it is also illegal to hike or camp off-trail.) This is only tenable if there are a large amount of public bathrooms available, otherwise tourists would just ignore the law. So Iceland has a disproportionate amount of bathrooms for conservation reasons. It is even more misleading because many of these bathrooms driving around cost a small fee (200ISK) to use even though they are “public”, I.e. owned by the government and available to everyone. And they only take credit card. In Reykjavík finding a bathroom is probably about as hard as finding one in NYC.